The Ghosts of New Mombasa
by Connor Xfor
Summary: I've been meaning to write this for a while now. This short story takes place during the events of Halo 2/Halo 3:ODST, and follows two SPARTAN II Commandos as they undertake a dangerous covert mission deep within the occupied city of New Mombasa. My first ever story on here, 6 chapters in length, roughly 18,000 words. More to follow! C.X.
1. Chapter 1: Launch

He hated this part. The waiting. The time before a mission where time had no meaning. You had nothing to do, no plans to draw, no weapons to clean, nothing to occupy your thoughts, but the waiting. He sat up slightly, his bodysuit stretching slightly, and stared out of the viewscreen, noticing how pale he looked in the smooth glass. Earth lay beneath, her deep blue oceans, vast arctic tundras, stretching deserts, mountains, rivers. The birthplace of humanity, now stretched across half the galaxy. He wasn't from earth, and up until now he had never been deployed there. The war hadn't dictated that. The war that he had served in for nearly 30 years. He sighed.

"Christ, Sab, we're almost 40" He mumbled, smiling pensively.

A tall woman, pale-skinned and fair haired, with piercing hazel eyes, looked up at him from her bunk, switching off her datapad, 'no doubt checking on John and the others' He thought to himself.

"This surprises you?" She asked, tilting her head slightly, curious

"Well yeah, think of all the others that didn't make it this far, all our friends. Even a Spartan's luck has to run out one day, right?" He queried

"I know, I miss them too, Jake" She said, sitting up on her bed, scratching her head "But you forget something, we're here. Well, most of us" She pointed at his left hand at the advanced prosthesis replacing his ring and middle fingers. "How's that keeping?"

He flexed the digits gently, making a fist "Great, those nanobiotics on board the Priscilla were a god-send" He looked at his watch, saw that it was almost time, and sighed. "Well then, looks like we'd better go suit up, drop's in 45 minutes" He got up, stretching his tall, athletic frame before slipping on his boots.

"Let's go down to engineering then, I heard they weren't happy about the assemblers being shoved in their way, but ONI rules supreme around here" She grinned, slipping on her own boots

They walked briskly along the UNSC Say My Name's corridors, missing hurried Navy personnel, service bots, and even a group of over-eager ODSTs marching around the corner.

"Move it squids" The squad leader barked, seeing only their plain Navy jumpsuits, barging past on their way to the aft launch bays.

They sidestepped them, playing the part of two ordinary ensigns, all be it unnaturally pale, 6 foot 10, dominating figures of ensigns.

"Some people just have no manners" He said, shaking his head "Helljumpers are all crazy"

"No arguments here" Sabina said, continuing her pace. "Come on, we've got 35 minutes left, and the suits take 20 on a good day"

They marched down the grey corridors, emergency alerts blaring out of the PA, arriving at a boring door, noticeable only for the new Level 6 security keypad on its surface, Jake punched in his code, and the door retracted with a hiss. They walked in, moving towards the hulking machines in the corner of the room, looking like industrial washers. In reality, they were more expensive than half the ship they resided in, and each one could assemble a full set of Mjolnir Mark VI armour in a little under 25 minutes.

"Did Tech programme these already?" Asked Sabrina, checking a bright blue display on the side of her machine.

"Think so" replied Jake, checking his own for the correct figures "Looks like we're good to go"

They stepped into their respective pods, and a series of motorised armatures began to quickly assemble the 300 kilo armour systems around them, slotting each piece into its place like a huge, matte-black, armour-plated Jigsaw puzzle. By the time that the machine had done its job, they stepped out, the sound of their footsteps heavy and metallic, looking more like an armoured vehicle with legs than human beings. Jake checked over Sabina's armour, noticing the odd angles and trademark angular helmet of an ODST armour system.

"Wow" He whispered, his voice magnified by the helmet's PA system. "They really made this thing look like an ODST, didn't they?" Their CO had been very insistent on having them look as normal as possible, and with a large-scale assault by ODSTs on the Covenant Capital ship that hung over the city of new Mombasa imminent, it was decided that they should disguise their distinctive armour as that of the Helljumpers.

Sabina depolarised her visor with a series of blinks, looking happy to be in armour. "Well, as long as no one looks too closely, we'll just blend right in." She had a point, Jake thought, although from a distance, they would look ordinary, up close any marine worth his pay check would notice the bulkiness that accompanied the heavy protective gear.

"It'll do" Jake said, checking the mission timer now visible on the top right of his HUD. "We'd better get going, 5 minutes until drop, aft launch bay, tubes 17-C and 17-D." They left the room, marching along, turning heads and eliciting a few whispers of "Spartans". Jake switched his chat to TEAMCOM.

"Well well, we're certainly boosting morale" He said, smirking behind the visor. Opening an access hatchway leading into the launch bays.

Sabina flashed back a response, one burst of signal that translated to a small flash of light in Jake's HUD, signalling her assent. She was getting excited, he could tell.

They arrived at the launch bay, dozens of tall cylindrical tubes rising out of the floor, a single HEV pod nestled in each tube, awaiting its occupant. ODSTs were milling about, securing weapons inside their pods, fastening straps on their armour, checking the latest intel on a large hologramatic projection of the battle zone. It didn't look good. A small covenant fleet had slip-spaced in, destroying several MAC defence platforms before heading to New Mombasa, Africa and halting above the city, deploying ground troops, killing thousands in their genocidal campaign. And so, UNSC FLEETCOM had decided to send in the Helljumpers to neutralise the carrier.

"How many of these guys will come back from this" Sabina suddenly spoke over TEAMCOM, sounding indifferent.

"At best guess, maybe 60%" He replied, no emotion in his voice. It was plain and simple math. Some of these men would not make it back, they were ODSTs. "Oh dear, it seems we've drawn quite a crowd" He remarked, as ODSTs stopped their tasks to stare at the heavily armoured figures moving towards the back of the bay.

No one stopped them, but all of them stared, some with a sort of reverence, some with fear, but most with a weird form of passive-aggressive indifference, snorting derisively as they passed. They made it to the end of the bay, and appraised their customised weapon selections.

"What do you reckon?" She murmured, picking an M7S caseless submachine gun, checking the sights "I like this one, all rounder, like me" She grabbed a MA5D, a handful of magazines, and a few grenades, affixing them to various hard-points on her torso

"I'm thinking something for the job" Jake spoke, selecting a 99C S2 rifle from his own rack, sliding the bolt back, slipping in a fresh magazine, and flipping the safety on. He attached the rifle to his back, the magnet in between his shoulder blade grabbing hold of it with invisible hands. "And of course, our old friend" He muttered, retrieving his own MA5D, stocking up on ammunition.

He looked around, noticing all 50 of the ODSTs had walked over and now stood still about 5 feet away, helmets on, visors opaque. He nudged Sabina's shoulder. She turned around so that they both faced the wall of Helljumpers, their backs against the wall.

The matte-black gauntleted hands suddenly snapped to their heads, their legs snapped together in attention, saluting. Jake and Sabina returned the salute, towering over them by a good foot. They stayed like that for a few seconds, then the whole group moved off, returning to their jobs, many of them clambering into their pods.

"Well, that was rather unexpected" Sabina said, stowing her equipment into her pod, securing weapons and ammunition into the compartments.

"Indeed" Jake replied, already climbing inside his pod, his gear safely stowed. "Hurry up, Sab, 3 minutes to drop" He reminded, checking his HUD. "Here we go" He tapped a few buttons on the inside door of his pod, and the segmented hatch closed around him, sealing him inside his own coffin, as the Helljumpers had become known for. He heard Sab's pod hiss shut a second later, and they both felt the mechanical arm grasp the top of their pods and swing them around, their small viewscreen now facing a blank metal wall.

The small displays flickered to life, one showing Sab's helmet as seen from the front, another showing Captain Muller's face, and shoulders from the bridge of the Say My Name. His voice, amplified by his helmet's speakers, rang out throughout the barrage of HEVs.

"There was once a wise man who once said that there is never a good war, and that there is never a bad peace. I remind you of the lives we have lost, friends, family, whole worlds glassed off of the charts." His eyes saddened "This has not been a good war. We have all spent most of our lives fighting these aliens, this genocidal force of power. We have safeguarded our home planet's location until the last man, and yet still they come. Things are bleak." He smiled, a rare move in an officer in his position "But we will prevail. They fight for their masters, but we fight for survival. We will claw at every scrap of hope we can until these bastards are destroyed, obliterated from the galaxy, and we might have a chance to rebuild"

He straightened his lapel, looking at his intel screen. "I've been told my HR that I'm not allowed to do this for PC reasons, but gentlemen" He looked straight into the camera "God speed, and give 'em hell" His display winked out, and the pods began to move, lifted into position into the launch tubes.

"I'll see you down there, 415 East 71st street" said Sab quietly, looking into the camera and making the signature 'smiley face' greeting that all Spartans share.

"Going COM silent now, pulses only" Jake replied, returning the gesture, his heart pounding with adrenaline. He loved this bit.

The deep booming of his pod being released into the launch tube resonated through his body, and seconds later, he felt his entire form forced upwards, struggling against the harness as the sudden acceleration lifted him up, his display screens flickering, his armour barely contained, rattling the buckles slightly. He grimaced through stretched lips, glad that his visor was polarised. His viewscreen suddenly lit up, letting poorly filtered sunlight pour in to the tiny pod, blinding him momentarily as his enhanced eyes adjusted quickly. Earth rapidly filled his view, its cloud formations dancing with pulses of light, plasma fire criss-crossing the sky beneath him.

He hurtled towards the city, spotting dozens of other pods at similar altitude, all streaking downwards, beginning to enter the atmosphere, they began heating up, trailing vapour behind them. He checked his pod's stats, 95% integrity, it'll do.

As they got closer to their target, Jake saw the city, a grey-beige metropolis of soaring towers and low level slums, dominated by the smooth, pearlescent, purple Carrier that rained death onto the streets, it's curved bulbous surfaces menacing to even the most battle hardened Spartan. As he watched, he noticed a ripple of distortion wash over the craft, crackling, causing lighting to strike the nearest buildings. His heart sank, knowing what was coming next. He jammed his finger onto the broadcast button.

"All UNSC HEV pods, that carrier is about to jump, inside the city, you've got to pull your chutes now!" He yelled into the mic, hearing nothing back but static and occasional garbled voices. He saw a few pods around him shoot up, their emergence brakes pulled, but the vast majority continued onwards, heading to the now rippling ship. He frantically looked at his TACSCREEN readout, and was relieved to see Sab's pod heading to their agreed drop zone, not on the carrier, but in the city, right next to their RV. He adjusted his pod, making sure he was on course, then fired his emergency boosters, shooting down faster towards the ground.

He suddenly tasted iron in his mouth, and looked up towards the carrier, only to be blinded again by bright, heavenly light issuing from it. He looked away, catching a glimpse of an angular shape moving at high speed towards the ship, dwarfed by its size. The shockwave hit him then, knocking his pod slightly off course, only saved from missing his DZ by his last second adjustments. The emergency brakes, unable to stop him with his increased speed, fired, and snapped off, leaving him with only the rocket boosters to slow his descent.

He closed his eyes, relaxing his jaw, preparing for a rough impact, silencing his pod's speed alert, activating his armour's locking system. Buildings flashed past him, and he was forced into his seat by the sudden deceleration caused by the rockets, the g-forces almost causing him to pass out, his vision dimming. There was a screaming of alarms, the clang as his pod hit a street sign, then an almighty, bone-jarring crash as he struck the side of a building, his pod buried in the 3rd floor. His entire body was crushed inside his rigid suit, and he passed out, brain starved of oxygen.

High above him, the enormous carrier winked out of existence, throwing off a wave of brilliant light, carried with it the key to winning the war, hiding in its nacelles in a small UNSC Frigate called In Amber Clad


	2. Chapter 2: Landfall

CHAPTER 2: Landfall

He shook his head, surprised that it was still attached to his shoulders and blinked in the glaring light seeping into his pod. He felt around his cramped container, his screens filled with static, with occasional unintelligible radio chatter filtering through.

"EMP" Jake muttered to himself. He knew that shortwave radios would still work providing they were off when the blast hit. He remembered telling Sabina to go radio silent, hopefully that would preserve their communications.

For now he turned his attention to his position. His pod had crashed into the 3rd floor of an office building, and had left a sizable trail of debris, destroying desks and windows. It now lay on its side, the hatch jammed into the wall, his view screen giving him a rather lovely view of someone's cubicle's poster, a kitten hanging on a branch with the caption "Hang in there!"

"Right, gonna have to pop the fuse" Jake mumbled, reaching up for the emergency escape. This system was crude, but effective. If he pulled the lever, several explosive charges would activate in the hatch's mechanism, expelling the door outwards. Of course, it wasn't designed to punch out into a solid wall. He had to judge how much force would be produced, whether it would be too much, and would push his pod out of the shattered windows. He made a few quick calculations. It would be close.

He checked his SATCOM status once more. It still threw a few error messages his way. He sighed. Reaching down to the compartment under his seat, he pulled out his MA5D, and secured his 99S-C to a hard point, unbuckling his harness in the process.

"Here goes nothing" he quipped, and pulled the lever sharply.

The force of the ensuing explosion was enough to jerk the pod rapidly backwards, and, pushing off from the cockpit in his power-assisted armour, Jake spilled out onto the office floor, turning his head to see what could have been his coffin teeter on the edge, the wind blowing glass dust over the exo-frame, and watched as it slipped off of the edge, scraping, composite thermal plating on the metal framework of the building, and fell, crushing a small sports car underneath it with an almighty crunch of metal and shattering of glass.

All was still, Jake crouched there, securing his rifle to his back and resting his Assault Rifle in the crook of his elbow. He moved slowly to the stairwell at the end of the room, rifle raised, his poise as stealthy as a panther. Clearing the room, its contents an eerie reminder of the panic and terror of its abandonment, all of the family photos had been hastily taken, leaving slight gaps in the desk clutter where they had once stood.

He moved more quickly now, clearing the stairwell before beginning to descend, covering every corner with his rifle, keeping an eye on his motion tracker, showing only rats moving in the walls, and another on his IFF detector. Nothing. He quickly made his way to ground level, sunlight streaming through the gaps where windows once stood, all obliterated by the immense shockwave. He grunted to himself, he must have been less than 400 metres from the slip space event when it happened.

He froze, unknown contact appearing on the motion tracker, by the location it must have been in the street. He ducked, moving towards the window of what once was a shop, the displays barren, looters having already taken the lion's share. He took cover under the window, clicking the safety of his rifle off, checking one last time where the contact was. 5 metres to his 4 o'clock. Alone. Did he shoot first? He deliberated, weighing up the possibilities of it being a civilian. He hadn't seen any covenant forces in this area yet, but if he gave a Jiralhanae even a second's lead on him, the consequences could be disastrous. What would Sab do? He asked himself, arriving at an answer, finally deciding to take a peek first.

He slowly lifted his head, peeking over the display he was hiding behind, and spotted a lone civilian stumbling through the streets, dazed. Her hands were bloody, held at her side, her hazel eyes were blank, unseeing. Her clothes were tattered, blackened and sooty. He sighed with relief, and called out to her via his PA system.

"Ma'am, UNSC forces coming out into the open, do you understand me?" He boomed, first in Swahili, then in English. She looked around, searching for the sound of the voice, trembling.

"Wh-where are you?" She stammered, shaking visibly, eyes scanning the shop "Can you help me?"

Jake stood up, all 7 foot of bulky armour, and slowly stepped over the shop window mantel, calmly approaching her, weapon stuck to his thigh, his hands held up in front of him.

She gasped, still shaking "Can you help me, please?" She collapsed on the street, shaking uncontrollably.

Jake rushed over and knelt beside her, his armour servos whining slightly, ripping off his helmet and setting it down beside her, against regulations, he checked her pulse through his gauntleted hand, scanning her with his bio-reader imprinted in his left forearm. Her bio-readings were strong, but she was dehydrated, in shock and bleeding profusely from her left wrist, a gash clearly visible.

"Dammit" Jake muttered, annoyed at the interruption to his mission, but unable to just leave her. He reached around to the small of his back, unhooking a first aid kit. He quickly bandaged her wrist, squirting a little bio-foam onto the wound, which would both seal it and disinfect it almost instantly. Satisfied that she wouldn't bleed out, he gently shook her awake, holding up a canteen to her lips.

"Hey, I'm here to help you, are you okay, can you walk?" He queried, beginning to grow nervous of their exposed position.

She awoke, eyes flickering, and greedily accepted the offer of water, gulping it down desperately. She looked up at him "Yeah, I can walk" She rasped, and tried to get up, collapsing again instantly. "Or not" She spoke, still dazed

"Here, let me" Jake supported her weight with ease, carrying her over to the shop, gently laying her inside. "Stay in here" He jumped outside to retrieve his helmet, noticing the road signs flickering, displaying the same message "Keep it clean" in green letters. He ducked back inside the shop, and sat down next to the woman. "I'm sorry, but I've got to leave soon, were you given an evac point to get to?"

"I-We were all told to head to Unity Square" She whispered "Before those bastards got into the building" She stared blankly at the wall "We never had a chance. There were so many dead, I had to hide among them just to escape. I just lay there, playing dead, I-I just lay there" She looked up at him "Why us?"

He sighed "I don't know, but I need your help" He was suddenly aware of his lack of NAV data. He didn't even know what street he was on. "Do you know where 415 East 71st street is from here? I landed pretty hard"

"It's just down the block" She mumbled, still in a trance "500 metres back the way I came" She stared at her bandaged wrist. "You helped me?" She looked up at him

"Yes, and take this" He pushed over a 24-hour ration pack "Should keep you going for 24 hours, use it, keep heading to Unity Square, there will be an evac ship there" He said, not sure if his words were true. He stood up to leave, donning his helmet again.

"Thank you" She said, blood returning to her cheeks, looking determined "I'll do that". She stood up, a little unsteady, and began to walk out of the shop, limping.

He sighed, looking around "Wait, I can't leave you undefended" He looked around for a weapon to give her, spotting an abandoned police car. He strode forward and punched out the window, not even hesitating. He reached around the interior, pulling out a standard issue M6 pistol. He walked over to her, placing the pistol into her palm. "You ever used one of these?"

"National guard, waiting to be called up" She grinned feebly, cocking the weapon "I can manage, thanks again" She said, walking on the side of the road, pistol in both hands.

Jake turned around, heading down the street, keeping to the harsh shadows cast by the mid-day sun. In the far distance, he could hear the tell-tale whine of covenant impulse drives, followed by the heavy thuds of Anti-Air defences. So, there was resistance still. He stalked down the sidewalk, the gentle buzzing of a smashed ATM the only noise he could hear in the deserted streets. He noticed the graffiti scrawled across all the walls, and the vast array of plasma fire damage, melted craters of road surface littered the plaza, the walls of the buildings either side of him pock-marked and scored by deep gouges of blackened concrete and steel.

His radio lit up, shortwave wave forms dancing across the screen, garbled transmission coming in "This is Sierra zero-nine-one, calling any UNSC forces, I am stuck in my HEV pod, the emergency release is jammed, anyone, please respond, Sierra zero-nine-one" Sab's voice broke out, sounding more annoyed than in danger.

Jake called up his TEAMCOM channel, thankful to hear the static that accompanied a working radio "You there, Sab? I'm almost at the RV, you need an assist?" He waited for 3 seconds

"I read you Sierra two-zero-six, affirmative, setting beacon now" She spoke, and Jake saw a bright orange NAV beacon light up about 2 kilometres away.

"I'm Oscar Mike, be there in 15" He said, closing his radio channel, and began jogging down the street, his power-assisted armour giving him an unnatural boost in speed. He tore through the deserted streets, constantly scanning the sight lines, rooftops, corners and his Motion Tracker. He ducked into a hardware store to grab a plasma cutter and some gas, slinging them over his shoulder. He guessed his way around the city streets, making wrong turns and meeting dead ends occasionally. "Where's NAV data when you need it" He cursed, trying to establish a link to the City's AI, the Superintendent, but coming up with server errors.

"Here we are" He muttered, moving into a small urban park, dominated by a 10 metre blackened crater at its centre, a lone HEV pod nestled upright within it, shaking slightly as its occupant moved around, he switched on TEAMCOM "Hey, Sab, turn off your beacon, I'm just outside, with your can opener" He knelt beside the pod, connecting the hose of the gas canister to the plasma cutter, sparking it alight. "Keep away from the left side of it"

"Copy, be quick" She replied, shifting her body right.

Jake touched the flame to the thermo-protective layer, cutting through the metal composite like a warm knife through butter. He began smoothly guiding the 4000 degree flame over the pod, his visor automatically hyperpolarising. It was slow work, the freshly cut metal skin glowing red hot.

Contacts, on the motion tracker, at least half a dozen, 50 metres, at the other end of the park. Jake quickly shut off the cutter, shielding himself from their sight with the capsule. "Sab, you got visual?" They were moving very slowly towards them, picking their way through the grass.

"One elite, 5 grunts, rifles and pistols" She calmly assessed, peeking out of her viewscreen. "You can take them."

"Got it" He slowly raised his assault rifle, checking the bright blue LED ammunition display. "30 metres" He lowered his head to the cracked and blackened soil, as they came into view. He whistled softly "Zealot" This was bad news. Covenant zealots were the most fanatical of their classes, and would sooner die in battle than be forced to retreat. The loping figure of the Sanghelli warrior, clad in bright red combat armour, approached the crater, barking orders to his squad from his four-way-split jaws. Even as a Spartan, this alien towered over him by 30 cm. He knew that if this recon patrol had arrived at the crash site, more would be close behind, confirmed a second later by the loudening whining of a Phantom dropship. They needed to exfiltrate now. A quick burst transmission from inside the pod told him that Sab had come to the same conclusion. "I've got an idea" Jake whispered, even though his helmet would silence him completely to the aliens less than 10 metres away. "But you really aren't gonna like it. Just stay away from the hatch"

He waited until the group of diminutive Unggoy, known as Grunts, began to walk inside the perimeter of the crater, chattering and mumbling through their masks, and swung around to his feet, springing from behind the crashed pod like a bat out of hell. The first 3 grunts died before they even knew where he was, he squeezed 2 bursts of automatic fire into each of them, the bullets cutting through them, bright blue blood dancing in the air. He could've gunned down the other 3 easily, but he held his fire, instead ducking behind the pod's form. "Come on, take the bait" He mumbled, and was rewarded by a loud growl of anger from the Elite, and the wet splashes of plasma fire hitting the ground all around him, some shots directed at the Pod's door, which began to melt, sagging. Jake fired a few more bursts at the interlopers, killing the remaining grunts, then ducked behind the pod again as the elite returned fire, bathing the pod in blue plasma.

"Now" He barked through the COM, and as he swung around to fire, a fresh magazine firmly slotted into the base of his rifle, the pod exploded, a 350 kilogram mass of limbs and armour plating, shields steaming as the molten metal evaporated off them, tore through the weakened exo-skeleton and ran at the elite at inhuman speed. The Sanghelli had enough time to mutter the single English word "Demon" before Sabina crashed into him, her combat blade glinting as she thrust it into the monster's neck, using her momentum to bring him down. The sad sound of gargling rose from his split jaw, his eyes livid, limbs flailing wildly, trying to reach his fallen plasma rifle. Sabina forced the blade in deeper, purple blood spattered her visor, and the giant foe was still, his last death throes slowly subsiding. Jake walked over, examining the body. "Zealots don't usually do combat patrols" He muttered, kicking the alien's leg with his boot, taking a few snapshots with his helmet cam. "Section Three should have a field day with that"

Sabina stood up, wiping the mauve blood off of her knife. "We should get moving, this patrol won't go missing unnoticed for long" She reminded, turning back to face the half melted remains of her HEV, quickly moving over to it, managing to salvage her M7S from the warped metal. She slid the magazine out, checking the count, then forced it back in, satisfied. "Well, I've got this at least"

Jake nodded, scanning the airspace around, the sounds of multiple impulse drives now clearly audible, even without the helmet's amplified microphone or the Spartans' enhanced hearing. "Let's move, we'll proceed to the COM relay on the northern side of the city, inside the ONI building" They both started off, heading north out of the park, sprinting over a main road. Keeping to the shadows, they made their way through the deserted streets, the bland, beige buildings looming over them on either side, the gargantuan towers of the Business District clearly visible above the skyline, in the distance. They rounded a corner into a residential district, weapons first, and froze.

The courtyard they found themselves in was littered with corpses. At least a dozen UNSC Marines, 15 Grunts, a half a dozen Sanghelli, a couple of gorilla-like Brutes, and 20 civilians were all splayed across the floor, their bodies broken limp. There were even a couple of middle-aged civilians who had been shot my UNSC weapons, caught in the crossfire.

"Can't have been more than a few hours ago, some of them are still warm" Jake whispered, consulting his thermal filter. He checked the IFF tags of the Marines. "Looks like an evac mission, three squads, 5 marines a piece, according to the logs" He looked around the battlefield, noticing the sheer volume of spent bullet casings on the floor.

"Looks like we're missing some Marines, then" Sab said, leaning down to prize an M90 Combat Shotgun from the hands of a Marine, rifling through his pockets for ammunition.

"We've got to focus on the target" Jake said, glancing at his mission timer. 4 hours after drop.

"What for, J?" She questioned, de-polarising her visor and looking up at him "He'll have gone to ground after the slip-space jump, even if the Covenant haven't found him first." She sighed. "You and I both know how they operate. First they scour the landing zone for Intel, then they glass the place" She was referring to the devastating ventral beams fitted to each major Covenant ship, high powered energy weapons that were capable of reducing whole worlds to nothing but melted slag from orbit. The result, when the molten world cooled, was a mirrored surface that resembled glass, actually vitrified soil. "If he's in the city, he'll be burned with the rest of this place"

"Orders are orders" Jake reminded her, de-polarising his own visor and looking her in the eye. "We're here to make sure he stays gone, there's too much at risk here, we go after him, and we take. Him. Out" He stated, enunciating the last sentence clearly, before relenting "Although without accurate intel, or a way to talk with our informant, it's going to be tricky to find him."

"True, let's hope the winds take this EM soup away ASAP" She replied, gesturing to the sky, "Then we won't need to get to the COM relay" She slipped a few shells into her newly acquired weapon, then stopped, listening intently to the sudden radio message coming in. Jake cleared up the signal with a few cheek movements, identifying it as a UNSC shortwave signal.

"Conrad, get up here with the .50, we can't hold them off all day!" Came the jumbled voice "We've got brutes coming up the alleyway and we need that fire support, me and Jones only have a couple of mags left, get here!" She looked him, wordlessly communicating her intent. Sighing, the Spartan nodded, polarised his visor, and they sprinted down the main street towards the loudening sounds of rifle fire.


	3. Chapter 3: ODST

CHAPTER 3: ODST

They practically ran into the first elite. He was charging round the corner, plasma rifle ready, having heard the sounds of heavy footfalls and assumed that more marines would be around the corner, the early afternoon sunlight danced over his blue armour. Instead he found two combat ready Spartans, black-clad spectres of death. He raised his rifle, his jaw spread wide in aggression, firing a full 4 second burst of hot energy at the first demon.

Sabina never broke step, just shrugged off the plasma fire, her shields flickering, she pelted towards the lone assailant, bringing her own weapon to bear. She pulled the trigger smoothly, and dozens of small ball bearings exploded out of the muzzle, tightly grouped, and were propelled into the angry elite's torso, reducing his shields to nothing and ripping into him. She wrenched the pump action backwards, loading another round into the chamber, spilling the hot shell out onto the street, and shoved the barrel of her weapon under the creature's split jaw, pulling the trigger again. The body of a proud Sanghelli warrior slumped to the floor, purple blood spilling onto the road surface.

Jake didn't even slow down as he saw Sab engage the alien, just kept on running at full speed towards the sounds of the firefight. He turned another corner, assessing the situation within a heartbeat. There were four UNSC IFF tags in the square he found himself in, low-level offices on two sides, a hypermarket on the northern face, and a residential district to the East. The square itself was a battleground, two marines taking cover outside the western office, crouching by the low wall that ran along the roadside. He could see shadowy figures through the doorway to this office on the thermal filter, possible civilians, and two more figures were on the roof of the building, firing their weapons into the enemies below. He scanned the rest of the square, counting 3 brutes, 8 grunts, 2 elite commanders and two unidentified contacts on the motion tracker, hiding on adjacent rooftops.

Sab caught up with him, wiping off the stain on her weapon's barrel. He signalled to her with his hand, indicting the size of the enemy force. She nodded, then loaded fresh shells into her M90. Sabina blinked a few times, changing her broadcast to the same frequency as the distress call. Her clear, calm Slavic tones cutting through the radio static.

"UNSC forces, this is Petty Officer Sabina-211 and Chief Petty Officer Jacob-209, what's the sitrep?" She asked, as Jake lowered himself into a firing stance, firing bursts of automatic fire from his MA5D into the group of Unngoy, scattering them, causing them to run back towards the safety of their barricades on the other side of the square. 3 of them lay still, perforated with bullets.

The two marines crouched by the wall looked across at them, then touched their hands to their ears, and seconds later a gruff voice came over the COM, "Sargent Kennedy, 405th Battalion ODSTs, nice to hear from you ma'am, we're stuck in this square with no way out with a dozen civvies inside, little ammo and no chance of evac, the first pelican they sent was shot down by rooftop small arms, crashed and burned" He paused "So then, Spartans, get to work, if you please"

Sabina sprang into action, sprinting out of cover towards the covenant blockade, priming a grenade as she did so, tossing it in a high arc into the air, so that it just fell among the alien ranks before it detonated. Jake covered her approach, peppering the area with lead, forcing them to stay in cover. He dashed the 10 metres to the Marines, and ducked behind the wall, his bulky frame barely concealed by the battered stonework. The two soldiers stared at him, open-mouthed, until he grunted over the PA "eyes downrange, supporting fire in 3" He quickly counted down, then pushed himself upwards.

As he took aim, the grenade exploded, spraying the area behind the barricade with metal fragmentation, shredding through armour and flesh, neutralising four of the five remaining grunts, and two of the brutes. He pulled the trigger, pressuring the remaining hostiles. The marines joined him, firing in tight bursts at any portion of alien visible, bullet casings falling to the ground, clanging and bouncing. They halted their assault, returning to the safe position of crouching behind the wall, and in this moment, Sabina vaulted over her cover and into the alien ranks. She struck the last Brute down with the butt of her gun, whipping its head backwards, snapping its neck with a loud crack. She swung the gun round, firing on the last Grunt, igniting the highly flammable methane strapped to the metre tall alien, propelling it comically into the air before exploding, showering the square in fluorescent blue blood in a gory fireworks display. Sabina swung round, scanning the road for the two Elites she knew were around, her motion detector showing no contacts. She risked poking her head up over the barricade, giving a quick thumbs up to Jake.

He poked his head above the wall, acknowledging her signal with a burst transmission, moving over in front of the door and crouching behind a damaged phone booth, spewing coins onto the street, their metallic ringing echoing around the suddenly quiet courtyard.

"Sab, over here, double time" He ordered over TEAMCOM, suddenly uneasy at the unexpected stillness. "Forget the Elites, but keep an eye out for them"

She hesitated for less than a second, then rapidly climbed over the barricade, running over to the doorway of the office, joining Jake and the two Marines just outside of the building's threshold, standing in a loose circle, they were dwarfed by the monolithic height of the Spartans.

Jake depolarised his visor, blinking a few times to add the four UNSC radios nearby to the Spartans' TEAMCOM channel. Sabina did the same, gazing down into the awed faces of the two armoured Marines, one of which, she realised, was a woman. They turned towards the building to see two more armoured figures emerge from the shadows, one in standard New Mombasa Police Department SWAT fatigues, the other clad head to foot in a set of matte grey, light-blue-visored ODST armour, with a distinctive emerald stripe across the breastplate. The ODST clutched a standard-issue 99C-S2 sniper rifle, the NMPD officer holstering an M7.

The ODST spoke first, depolarising his own visor to reveal a haggard face, etched with deep worry lines. "So then, who do we have to thank for saving our asses?" He asked with a gruff Texan accent "Thanks Spartans, we were cooked, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm Sargent Kennedy" He pointed to the NMPD officer "this is Captain Willows of the NMPDs Swat unit" He pointed to the two marines "And they are Private First class Sara Grey and Private…"

He was cut off by a series of loud cracks from across the square, and two beams of energy cut into their midst, one striking Sabina square in the back of the helmet. Her shields flaring and failing, she crumpled to the ground heavily, The other beam struck the second Marine in the chest, ripping through his body armour, shredding his heart and left lung, killing him instantly. No sooner had he collapsed than the group scattered, Kennedy motioning to the civilians inside to stay out of sight. They all ran to cover, Jake dragged Sabina behind him, bundling her against the wall before taking cover himself. He glanced over at Kennedy. "Beam rifles, up high, across the yard". Kennedy nodded, glancing over at the dead Marine "Poor SOB, only been in the Corps for a week".

He checked Sab's vitals on his HUD, satisfied that she was alive and breathing, just knocked out by the sheer force of the impact. He then turned his attention to the snipers, most likely Kig Yar, or Jackals as the UNSC forces named them. Two shots likely meant two snipers, probably on top of the apartment block opposite them.

"Two snipers up on top of that residential, Grey and Willows, you okay to provide supressing fire while Kennedy and I get to the roof?" He saw her staring at the body of her comrade. "Hey, eyes on Marine, focus"

She jerked her head up, anger and anguish burning in her hazel eyes. "I got it sir, just say the word" She braced herself up against the wall, gripping her MA5 tightly. Willows nodded his assent, reloading his M7 with his last magazine. "Ready to go sir" He confirmed in a South African accent.

Jake looked over at Kennedy, well aware that this could be the last thing either of them did. Kennedy darkened his helmet and nodded. Jake turned to look at the limp form of Sabina, then barked "Supressing fire!"

PFC Grey and Captain Wilows popped up from behind the wall, sighted the bird-like Kig Yar, and opened up, spraying the rooftop of the complex with their combined rifle and Sub machine gun fire, the Jackals ducked behind air conditioning units, screeching in surprise. Jake and the Sergeant burst from cover and sprinted for the doorway, ducking into the shadows, past the dozen or so civilians cowering behind desks and vaulting the narrow stair case at the back of the room. The sound of gunfire echoed through the building as they climbed to the first floor, then the second, the ODST having trouble keeping up with the massive Spartan. They reached the top of the stairwell and burst through the fire door, taking cover behind the low wall that bordered the edge of the roof.

Jake immediately begin setting up his 99C-S2, resting the bipod on the floor, and resting the barrel on the wall. He checked the scope was synchronised with his rangefinder. Kennedy did the same, laying down on his stomach and staring through the scope at their targets. It was an easy shot. They had clear line of sight, and they were roughly on level with their adversaries. The two Kig-Yar were still crouched behind their air ducts, chattering to each other. As soon as their allies below stopped firing, the vulture-esque aliens would abandon cover. That was when they had to take their shots. Jake and Kennedy made a few last-second adjustments, slowing their breathing, relaxing their shoulders and arms.

"I got the one on the right" Breathed Jake, slowly curling his finger around the trigger, resting it on the edge of firing.

"Affirmative" Breathed the soldier, shifting his focus left slightly, lining up his shot.

"Cease fire" commanded Kennedy, and Grey ducked behind cover two floors below them, joining the Captain, who had already run out of ammunition. The alien snipers immediately stood up, their beaks open, hissing, raising their Beam Rifles to their shoulders. They never fired a shot. Jake's Armour-piercing round hit dead on target, penetrating the Jackal's combat skin, tearing through its chest. Kennedy's shot struck the other sniper dead between the eyes, deflected by the beak slightly, the round entered the creature's cranium, and it slumped to the floor of the roof, almost decapitated. The twin cracks of the Sniper Rifles echoed through the courtyard, juxtaposed by the silence that followed.

Jake kept his eyes down range, losing for any signs of movement. After 30 tense seconds, he pushed up from his prone position on the roof, slung the rifle onto his back, and patted the ODST on the shoulder. "Good shot" He remarked, a true compliment from a Spartan. Kennedy grabbed his own weapon by the strap, slipping it over his neck. "Thanks, now let's get everyone up to speed." He switched to TEAMCOM. "Willows, Grey, snipers are down, secure any intel from the Covvies outside then report back, I'll deal with the Private" He turned to Jake. "You might want to get her inside"

Jake nodded, then followed the ODST down the stairs, not even glancing at the civilians on the ground floor as he rushed to Sabina, reassuring himself that her vitals were fine. He propped her up against the wall in a sitting position, then gently tapped her visor. "Hey Sab, you in there?" He squatted in front of her, hands on knees.

She began to stir, then sat bolt upright, reaching for her weapon "Snipers" She mumbled, feeling the back of her lid for any damage. "How long?"

He depolarised his visor "5 minutes, maybe 6. You missed all the fun" He punched her shoulder lightly "They're down, but we lost one of the Marines, nothing we could do" He glanced over at Kennedy, who was whipping out a standard issue lightweight body bag from his back pocket and wrestling the Private's body into it. No one really knew when it would be retrieved, but they couldn't just leave him there. There were too many unidentified bodies in this war already.

She shook her head, her visor clarifying to reveal a look of frustration. "How could I get knocked out like that? I'm a Spartan." She slowly got to her feet, Jake rose with her.

"Well, I'm sure a beam rifle shot to the back of the head is a good excuse, even for a Spartan" He looked around, suddenly alert. The faint humming of multiple impulse drives just coming into range with his heightened hearing. She heard it as well, her hand already moving to her shotgun. "Multiple covenant dropships incoming" she broadcast over the radio, spotting the tear drop shaped Phantoms coming into view, at least 5 of them.

Kennedy ran over to them from inside, having just finished carrying in the body bag. "Shit, those two Elites we let slip earlier must have tipped them off"

The ships spread out around them, deploying dozens of troops on every road leading out of their square, establishing a perimeter of two blocks, closing in. "Willows, Grey, back here on the double!" Kennedy snapped, backing slowly towards the door. "We can't fight them, there are too many of them, and I spotted a Hunter pair on the northern road, back into the office, quick!" He turned to the two Spartans "I'm sorry, but we need your help, I'm damn sure that ONI didn't send two Spartans down here to help my sorry ass, but you're here now, and we need to get these civilians out of here"

Jake nodded, already formulating a way to get both objectives done. They needed to get to the ONI building, to the relay and make contact with their informant. The evacuation mission needed to get out of the city. "Okay, let's get out of here" He said, as he remembered a spark of information from his briefing. "There's a network of sewerage tunnels underneath the city, we'll use that to get to the ONI building, and that's the best shot for an evac within the city"

The others joined them. Willows spoke up "There's an access building behind the office, we can get in through there, and I can lock down the door once we're in" He moved into the building, getting the civilians onto their feet, ushering them out of the back door of the building. Grey and Kennedy joined him, and the Spartans followed suit, locking the sliding doors to the office, setting up a frag grenade attached to a tripwire which spanned the width of the reception. They hurried out back, spotting the SWAT officer waving to them from a small hut.

"Over here, quickly, they're coming through the estate behind the building as well". He moved inside, holding open the door. They rushed inside, moving past him to the ladder that descended into the sewers. Sabina made sure that her air filters were working properly, then slid down the ladder quickly. Willows turned away, frantically typing in security codes into the keypad by the now closed door.

"That should keep them busy for a while" He smirked, turning round to the Spartan. "Let's get going" He slid down the ladder himself, closely followed by the immense bulk of the 350 kilogram soldier, who shut the hatch at the top of the shaft. He splashed down into the sewers, his helmet's floodlights coming on automatically, illuminating the band of civilians, all of whom were retching or gagging at the smell.

Jake checked his compass, locating south, then began walking briskly down the cramped tunnel, turning around, he addressed the group, his voice reverberating in the confined space "We need to get to the Office of Naval Intelligence building in the South of the city. I don't know that there will be a drop ship on the other side, but it's our best bet. I know you have all endured great loss to get this far, and it is likely that there will be more hardship to come, but this is the quickest and safest way to get all of us to safety." He paused "Petty Officer, take rear guard, I'll take point, willows and Grey, either side of the civilians, Kennedy, with me".

They formed up into a tight group, the flashlights on the end of their weapons and helmets casting long shadows on the surfaces around them, reflections in the water's surface dancing. As a group they moved off into the darkness, heading South under the river, to their salvation


	4. Chapter 4: Extraction

Chapter 4: EXTRACTION

"So, Spartan" Kennedy whispered through a direct COM link "Why are you here?"

They walked side by side along the dark sewer tunnel, the Man keeping pace with the Spartan. Jake's heavy footfalls echoed off of the stone surfaces. The 300 kilo armour made loud splashes in the ankle high water. Their footsteps were joined by a dozen more, 12 civilians trudged behind them, gagging intermittently, behind them strode the other Spartan, Sabina, looming over the others by half a metre. On either side of the group were Willows and Grey, the SWAT officer and the Marine, roped into this crew by circumstance. They walked as a unit in silence, lost in thought, stunned and afraid.

"Classified Sargent" Jake responded, his tone neutral. "ONI has to keep some secrets" He turned his head towards the ODST, looking down. "Semper Vigilans isn't on the badge for nothing"

The soldier shrugged "Don't know what I expected to be straight with you, spooks ain't exactly known for their transparency" He walked on in silence, fiddling with the safety of his assault rifle, "But whatever you're here for, you got every one of us out of there in one piece, so you have my thanks." He chuckled "When I get back to my crew, they're gonna rib me so hard. Ass saved by a Spartan, I'll never hear the end of it"

Jake grinned in his helmet, shouldering his MA5D. "I'll never tell" He opened up the COM, including the rest of the group "We should be about another hour away from the ONI building, pass it on to the civvies" Willows and Grey passed the message on to the group.

Grey came up to the front to join the two men, she spoke softly into her microphone, aware that her open-faced helmet would allow the civilians to hear her. "Sir, Chief Petty Officer, what's going to happen to us now? I mean, they're here. The Covenant. They're on Earth."

"Well Private, we've got the whole of the Home Fleet waiting just outside the atmosphere, the Orbital Defence Grid of MAC Cannons, and a population of 20 billion people who refuse to resign themselves to extinction" Jake spoke, ensuring that his helmet PA was switched on so that the civilians could hear. "I can also vouch that the entire of ONI is also looking for a more" He paused "Indirect solution, we're not beaten yet private, trust me on that"

Satisfied, Grey stepped back into formation, and they passed the next hour in silence, until they reached an exit. Jake called up Sabina to the front. "This ladder should put us one block away from the compound, but there could be a whole covenant brigade above us, I'm going to check it out, I'll be on TEAMCOM"

She tapped his shoulder "Look out for ammo, I'm down to two mags and the Captain doesn't have any for the M7."

He hesitated, on gauntleted hand on a rung "I'm low on MA5 ammo as well, plenty for the 99D-S2 though" He placed his foot on the first rung. "I'll keep an eye out, be back in five" He hauled himself up the ladder, servos hissing slightly, and opened the hatch at the top slowly. Seeing nothing nearby on his thermal filter, he eased the heavy lid open and pulled himself onto the road.

The eerie blackness of a human city at night without power consumed his view. This section of town had been hit hard, all backup generators for street lighting must've been destroyed by the Covenant. He stealthily moved over to the pavement, crouching by an abandoned Hog (a civilian version of the UNSC Warthog Light Reconnaissance Vehicle). He didn't need IR filters to see, his enhanced vision allowed even the darkest of places to be sharply focused. What he did see shocked him deeply. A battle had taken place here, but he saw no human casualties.

Scores of dead Elites, Brutes, Grunts, Jackals and even hulking Lekgolo (Hunters), littered the street, plasma burned flesh everywhere. The sweet smell of blood permeated his CBD filtered helmet, reminding him of the battles he had fought. He crept over to a fallen Elite, examining the jagged spikes of crystal that stuck out from his armour. This had been a fight between Brutes and elites, he was sure of it, ONI analysts had deduced that the Sanghelli and Jiralhanae social systems could not co-exist in a society and that one would always be in competition with the other.

"Sab, you're going to want to see this. Remember when I said there could be a legion of Covvies up here?" He asked over TEAMCOM "Well, I was sort of right, bring them up, the coast is clear for now."

Sabina resisted from responding until she poked her head up from the manhole, then whistled softly, pulling herself up. "Brutes versus Elites?" She asked, quickly making the same deduction he had made. The rest of the group made their way to the surface, blind in the near pitch black. As the soldiers and the Captain heaved onto the road surface, their flashlights illuminated the carnage around them, and the civilians gasped, murmuring to each other.

"Holy shit" Whispered Willows, kicking the leg of a dead Brute "They did this to each other?" He reached down and turned the beast's head over, wincing at the sight of plasma-fire-induced damage to the alien's head. "Maybe we won't need the Home Fleet, looks like they're tearing each other apart without our help" his voice dripped with bitterness.

Sabina looked around the scene, photographing every inch of the deserted street, which was blocked at one end by the traffic control blast door. "Blocked at this end, J"

"Got it, meet us back at the manhole" Jake said, turning to the other end of the narrow street, magnifying his vision. "Right, civvies and Willows, move up the right of the road, slowly, Kennedy and Grey, take left, be cautious. Sabina and I will take the middle"

They arranged themselves accordingly, Grey and Kennedy wordlessly moving to the row of parked cars on the left, scanning their sight-lines intently, Willows headed up the civilians, his M6 magnum now out and loaded. He and Spartan-211 moved up the centre of the road, slightly ahead of the two groups either side. They moved away from the scene of the battle, heading towards the looming 50 metre wall that surrounded the ONI building complex. About 100 metres down the road, Sabina began to recognise silhouettes in the distance, a destroyed Scorpion Main Battle Tank lay broken in the middle of the passage, still hot to the touch, no bodies though, so that was something

They turned left at a T-junction, through a set of blast doors into the triangular courtyard outside the ONI complex. Jake noticed no motion sensor contacts, but something told him that there was something not quite right about the situation. He held up a clenched fist, and their formation halted. He and Sabina scanned the view in front of them intently, searching for anything suspect.

After a minute, it was the female Spartan who spotted something. "There, up on the walkways" She whispered, gesturing towards the paths leading along two sides of the triangular area, towards the door that lead to the complex. "Visual distortions, cloaked Brutes, most likely Stalkers" These Brute units adopted active camouflage technology from their Sanghelli counterparts, and used devastating close-range weapons (dubbed 'Maulers') to kill.

"How many?" He asked, struggling to count all of the distorted shapes, "I count five in all"

"Affirmative" She replied, running a few simple tactical calculations in her head. "We can take them" She confirmed. She was never wrong about these things.

"Negative, we slot these guys, more will come" Jake said, searching their movements for a pattern. "Two patrols of two tangos each, moving around the central courtyard, one leader at the door, Maulers, Incendiaries, we can avoid them if we want" He once again tried to connect to the city's AI, and suddenly he was granted access, albeit with a dozen warning signs flashing across his visor. He had access to NAV data, and security systems, but still no COMMS.

Sabina had had the same breakthrough "Well, three-hundredth time lucky" She murmured, signalling to the others to contact the AI themselves. "We still don't have COMMS, but we may have a way to distract these inbreds" She quietly motioned for Willows to come over to them.

"What do you need?" He queried, ducking behind a nearby barricade

"The cars, can you remotely set off their alarms, or do anything to distract them, if we had the security codes?" She asked, depolarising her visor and looking him in the eye.

"Yeah, don't see why not, we use them in the NMPD to alert people if there's a perp near them" He shrugged "But I'm not Traffic, so my code won't do squat"

Sab pondered for a second, then nodded to him "Get back to them and await our signal, you're going to move quickly and quietly to the blast doors when we signal, got it?"

"Affirmative" He spoke, dodging back to the civilians

Sabina quickly set about setting her bait. She'd use her ONI omni-access code to set off some car alarms at the other end of the courtyard, hopefully they'd take the bait. Luckily the ONI sector had its own nuclear back-up generator.

Jake informed the ODST and the Marine of the hastily concocted plan, then primed himself for action. "We ready?"

She blinked in a few more codes into her HUD, finalising the distraction "We are now, give the order"

"Now" He said, as the deafening alarms of a dozen vehicles pierced the night's silence, he burst from cover and ran towards the blast doors, relieved to see all of the tagged shapes moving quickly in the other direction. He was followed by Sabina, the group of civilians and the two soldiers as the hurtled through the blast doors, down the access ramp and into the ONI complex. He quickly typed in his override code into the Blast doors as the last person made it through, and the 2 metre thick Titanium-A alloy slid smoothly into place over the existing blast doors. He'd just have to hope that the Stalkers were too distracted to remember what colour the door was beforehand.

The narrow passageway before him sloped downwards briefly, then levelled out for about 20 metres. He couldn't see it, but he knew that the road would then rise up again, past a second set of blast doors, and then across a bridge to the ONI building. He marched past the others, ducking around broken chassis of Warthogs. Two NMPD officers lay sprawled on the floor, their uniforms singed and tattered by plasma fire. He reached down and relieved the dead men of their ammunition, tossing three magazines to the Captain wordlessly. He stood up, armour creaking slightly, and carried on marching up the slope. He keyed in his access code into the blast doors' key pad, and they sighed open, revealing a sight from hell.

The ONI building was gone. Fires raged from the blast site, lighting up the clouds, making the whole world dance with orange light. The crippled steelwork and shattered stone building blazed, sending smoke thousands of feet into the air. The bridge that had once lead to the building over a large moat was also destroyed, only the stubs of the supporting pillars visible above the water. The ground around them was littered with spent casings, telling the story of a bloody battle, and there were UNSC casualties scattered about, their IFF tags blinking lights in the orange gloom.

"Sargent, Private, check the bodies for ammo, we'll regroup here in 5, Captain, look after them" Jake gestured vaguely to the 12 people, transfixed by the sight of the burning building, the fire dancing in their eyes. "Petty Officer, with me" He walked towards the security booth, Sabina at his side, two Spartans of only a handful left.

"Well then, this complicates things" muttered Sab "Who did this? It's barely been 24 hours since the invasion, and already we're employing scorched earth?"

"I know, but this was always a possibility, we'll just have to figure something out" Jake pushed open the door into the small building, searching for any sign of a comms relay control post, checking the row of instruments on the table before him.

"There's no control for the relay here, Chief Petty Officer" spoke a disembodied voice, coming from the small speaker in the desk in front of him.

Jake exchanged a glance with Sabina, before answering "And who am I speaking to?" He rested his rifle up against the wall, awaiting a response.

"This is ONI AI Cerberus, custodian of this facility, and you need my help." Came the reply, a calm, soothing, male voice.

"If you're in charge of this facility, why wasn't your core destroyed along with the rest of the building?" Jake asked, bluntly asking why the Artificial Intelligence unit hadn't been deleted.

"The demolition was poorly performed, I'm afraid, Spartan-209. It was set up by the NMPD under orders from on high, and helped in execution by a couple of ODSTs. As you can imagine, they weren't familiar with the building's systems, and so, while they destroyed all physical records of data, awakening a whole hive of Yanme'e along the way, they failed to destroy my core matrix." Came the response, and after the sentence was complete, a small holographic pad to the right of the security screen came to life, displaying a translucent figure of a suited man with greying hair and 2 day stubble.

Sabina cut in, addressing the hologram "You said you could help us, can you get a signal through the EM smog?" She glanced over at the group of people "We need evac, ASAP"

Cerberus turned slowly on his pad, looking at the Spartan "Spartan-211, I can certainly try, although my civilian counterpart seems to be suffering from memory loss. There's a viable civilian COM relay close by. Stand by" His form flickered subtly, then solidified "Yes, I've made contact with ONI, patching you through now." Suddenly, the security monitor in the desk flickered to life, and an olive-skinned woman's face filled the view.

"Jacob-209? This is Captain Serin Osman of the Office of Naval Intelligence, aboard the UNSC _Overwatch, _do you read?" She spoke, authoritatively

"Affirmative ma'am, reading you loud and clear, where's Lieutenant Carne?" Jake replied, sitting in the chair in front of the console.

"Sorry Spartan, I'm afraid he bought it when the _Byron_ went down, I'm your new handler, why don't you give me the sitrep?"

Jake didn't even blink, numbed to death by 30 years of first hand experience. "Roger, sorry to hear that. We were caught off guard by the jump, our COMs have been blocked by the EM soup, we stumbled upon a group of civilians ma'am, protected by an ODST, a Marine and an NMPD SWAT officer. We've been trying to exfil ever since, trying to get in contact with our informant." He said, hesitating. "There's something else ma'am, we found the aftermath of a fight between Sanghelli and Jiralhanae. Transmitting now" He silently sent the picture and video evidence up to the Captain.

She studied the images, her face intently scanning every frame. "I'll send this on to the Admiral, thanks Spartans." She straightened herself in her chair, looking slightly off screen at another display. "I've dispatched a Pelican, should be there in 20 minutes, you are to hold position until they arrive. In addition, pull Cerberus from the system, bring him with you, can't have him falling into enemy hands. As for your target, Bravo C-7 called in an hour ago, saying that the target was preparing to leave the city, at the Grand Hotel in the Northern District." She looked into the camera "once you exfil, you'll proceed to the target and neutralise, as planned. Good hunting Spartans" She cut the link, ending the conversation.

Jake and Sabina looked at each other. "So, that's Serin Osman" muttered Sabina "she looked familiar" she turned to the AI "Cerberus, any intel on incoming hostiles?"

The hologram looked up "Nothing on my sensors, 211. I'm breaking off contact with the system, yank me". He faded, and a small silicone data chip ejected from the holo-pad's base. Jake retrieved it and slotted it into the neural interface on the back of his helmet. Cerberus' voice played from his helmet's speakers. "I'll not dare to go further than the armour, thank you very much, I'm not one for messy biological interactions"

Jake stood up, picking up his rifle, and exited the building. Sabina met him at the door and marched alongside him as they made their way back to the group, Kennedy and Grey having already scavenged for ammo, finding plenty. There were a lot of casualties. They joined the group, depolarising their visors, and explained the situation, backlit by the orange glow.

As they explained, Sabina spotted something. Raising her M90, she yelled "DOWN", and fired, sending a spray of buckshot into the cloaked Brute that had been approaching them. The shields spluttered and faded, leaving one very visible and wounded Brute, raising its own weapon. It never made it, Sabina pushed the civilians out of her way, swinging her shotgun like a club, and drove it home into the creature's temple, snapping its head round, snapping the beast's neck instantly. As it fell, Kennedy, Grey and Willows snapped into action, herding the civilians behind the hut. Jake ducked behind a wall, scanning the area for any more Stalkers.

Sabina hurdled the wall and joined him, barely breaking a sweat, she wrestled with the pump action on her M90, realising that the immense force behind her blow had dented the weapon beyond use. She drew her M6, disengaging the safety.

Jake spotted four more shadowy blurs, making their way up the ramp towards the now open blast doors. He signalled to the others, motioning for them to wait until they reached the top of the ramp. He snapped the safety off on his own weapon, and waited the thirty tense seconds it took for the four the lumbering aliens to reach the kill zone. He primed a frag grenade from his belt, held it for three seconds, then tossed it over the wall towards them. As the grenade detonated, he and Sabina, along with Grey, Willows and Kennedy, moved out of cover and began firing, the deafening staccato of combined rifle, SMG and pistol fire echoing around the walls. The two brutes that had not been killed by the grenade were cut down instantly, but even as they crumpled to the ground, the Spartans saw multiple hostiles on their motion sensors, heading their way. All of them slotted fresh magazines into their weapons, and prepared.

Sabina looked over at the pathetic cover afforded by the security hut, glass windows and wood. It wouldn't last long under plasma fire. Jake had come to the same conclusion, and they both, without a word, vaulted over their own cover to meet their new enemies head on, hopefully drawing fire away from the vulnerable group.

Two Brute squadrons faced them, each consisting of two Jiralhanae armed with spiked projectile weapons, and a half dozen Uggnoy. The Spartans advanced, firing consistently, Jake with his MA5D, Sabina with her M6. Supported by the rifle fire from the others, they cut down the first patrol, blue blood and methane tanks flying everywhere. One Grunt caught light, exploding in a bright blue ball of death, taking out three of his comrades. The second squad opened fire, directed towards the two super-soldiers. They absorbed the plasma damage, shields depleting, almost knocked back. Needler rounds deflected off of the shields, filling the air with purple crystalline shards.

The onslaught didn't last for long though, a well-timed grenade from Grey broke the aliens' ranks, and the brutes were dispatched by Kennedy's 99S-D2 rifle, its sharp rapport audible among the screaming and gunfire. The whole exchange had taken less than ten minutes, and as the two Spartans came down from their adrenaline highs, they were, hailed by a UNSC Pilot.

"This is Pelican Alpha two-two, Sierra 209, you read me?" Came the static-filled hail.

"Affirmative Alpha two-two, we read you, the LZ is clear" Responded Jake, finishing the last grunt off with his combat knife. "Come on down"

The whine of the dropship's engines became louder as it descended, lights off. It came down to rest in the centre of the road, nose-cone dangerously close to the sheer edge, its downdraught whipping leaves and scraps of paper back and forth.

Jake started to usher the civilians into the open bay doors, but found that Willows, Grey and Kennedy were already bundling them into their seats, tightly affixing the harnesses around them before seating themselves. Sabina sat in the seat closest to the door on one side, Jake sat himself in the opposite place, angling his rifle out of the back door.

As the dropship smoothly lifted off from terra firma, bay door slowly closing, the pilot squawked over the intercom, "Welcome aboard Ladies and Gentlemen, next stop, Camp Bulverhythe, just outside the city limits" The civilians let out a collective sigh of relief, patting each other on the shoulders, relaxing in their seats. Jake could not relax yet, their mission wasn't over, but even if the target slipped away, they could both be satisfied with safely executing an evac from within the covenant lines. And that wasn't too bad, even for Spartans.


	5. Chapter 5: Insertion

CHAPTER 5: INSERTION

Spartan two-one-one sat in the bay of the UNSC Pelican dropship, looking out of the rear viewscreen as the city behind them burnt. She knew it would happen. It would happen like so many world before it, dozens of colonial planets wiped off of the face of existence. The Covenant would search the planet for anything pertinent to their religion, then rain fire from the skies from the safety of their ships. Every major vessel had a high powered energy weapon, a ventral beam, so called because of the effects of the intense heat they produced. When the Covenant 'glassed' a planet, they did just that. They boiled away the oceans and melted the land masses into an enormous pile of vitrified soil. How many world had she seen burn? Reach, Harvest, New Llanelli, Reynes, Meridius VII, and soon Earth.

The Covenant ships, cruisers, destroyers, assault carriers, arranged themselves in a grid formation, turning their energy weapons to the surface below them. They slowly moved, menacing curved hulls glinting in the early morning sun, lighting the sky with the heavenly beams of death emanating from their bows.

She fiddled with the slide on her M6, checking and re-checking the action. Even Spartans had their safety blankets. She gazed out upon the awesome destruction, as half of the African Mega-City New Mombasa was slowly reduced to molten slag with a kind of ruthless efficiency. She wondered how many people hadn't made it out of the city. How many would meet their ends in the blinding columns of pure energy. Then she shook herself out of it. She and Jacob-209 still has a mission to achieve, and it was vitally important that they achieve it. Their target could mean the difference between their defeat and their survival.

David Webb. Born and raised on Cygnus-III, one of the colony worlds glassed by the covenant. The UNSC had had suspicions that the small colony would be attacked, but could not hope to counter the massive covenant fleet that appeared in orbit ten years ago. And so they assisted in the evacuation of thousands of civilians, and then left the rest to die. When the news leaked that the entire UNSC FLEETCOM had received numerous reports before the attack, which clearly indicated Cygnus-III as a target, many people were shocked and appalled, there was public outcry, For some people like David Webb, who had lost a wife and two children to the glassing, the news that information was withheld tipped him over the edge. He cut all ties with EarthGov, and laid low on a renegade colony called Venezia for a few years, making contacts in the Insurrectionist movement. They trained him in combat, filled his mind full of propaganda, and let him loose on Earth. Five years later, a dozen terrorist attacks and over two thousand dead, Webb was on every Most Wanted List in UNSC space.

This was their target. Unfortunately for them, Webb had always kept the media attention on him, so if he was plain assassinated then the whole world would know. There were certain things that even ONI couldn't do and get away with. When the small covenant fleet broke through our defences, CINCONI advised that if Webb was killed during a covenant attack, then not only could the media not find out, but if and when they did, it could easily be explained by the attack itself. Sabina had to give the Admiral some credit, for a 91 year old woman who needed a cane to walk, she was no pushover.

The UNSC pilot's voice buzzed out of the PA system in the bay, barely audible over the engine.

"We're two minutes out from Bulverhythe, upon arrival, each refugee will be issued a name tag. You will then be directed to temporary accommodation further away from the city." She sounded bored, having probably given the same speech to a dozen dropship's worth of refugees already today, and it was only 5 AM.

Jake looked up from his TACPAD, his reflective visor glinting in the harsh light from the glassing. He opened up a direct COM line to her.

"We're to report to Commander Cerny as soon as we touch the ground, he'll give us the brief and show us to the armoury." He stated, pointing to a schematic in his wrist-mounted data pad, tapping the screen with his robotic prosthetic fingers. "The target's last known position is the Grand Hotel, there's a high rise about 300 metres from the hotel, and I believe we can get a line of sight from there."

She thought carefully, looking at the images now being displayed across her HUD. Now they were in contact with ONI, they had all the intel they could manage, and NAV data, which had been sorely lacking during their time within the city. "My only thought is that if you were an intelligent Insurrectionist cell leader, you'd make sure that the most obvious building to be shot at from was rigged." She highlighted another skyscraper on her HUD "What about his one, bit further, about 400 metres, but less likely to be trapped."

He tapped his leg like a metronome, thinking the problem through. "Okay, we'll see what Cerny has to say, but I'm with you."

They both nodded, and stood up as the whine of the dropship's engines lowered, the rear door opening to reveal a busy pre-fabricated Firebase. While the civilians filed off into the screening buildings, Sabina and Jake shook hands with PFC Grey, Sargent Kennedy and Captain Willows (who had all helped them get 12 refugees safely out of the city centre), and then they both snapped to attention, saluting the trio. They returned the salute smartly, and then wandered off to be assigned jobs.

Together they headed towards the command building, turning plenty of heads. It was hard not to when you stood half a metre than everyone else and were encased in 300 kilograms of ceramic alloy armour. It also didn't help their anonymity that FLEETCOM had decided to reveal certain parts of the SPARTAN-II programme to the public to boost morale.

As they entered the command centre, a haggard looking man in grey UNSC fatigues looked up from the holographic map of New Mombasa, showing the destruction left by the starships' weapons. "Spartans, I'm Commander Cerny, please no saluting, we don't have much time." He gestured them towards the centre of the room. The other officers and ONI agents in the room paid them no attention, absorbed in the frantic operation to counter-attack.

They clunked over to the holo-pad, standing straight-backed in front of the Commander.

"Sierra-209 and Sierra-211 reporting for duty, sir" said Jake.

The Commander looked up, smiling slightly "At ease Spartans, now let's get down to business" He manipulated the holographic map's view, centring it around the Grand Hotel. "Firstly, I'll need the Cerberus AI chip, he has important information about why the Covenant chose to attack here of all places, him and a copy of the SUPERINTENDANT AI which controlled the city. I'm allowed to tell you that Captain Dare retrieved a copy of some interesting excavation data, so we hope that Cerberus can help us fill in some blanks." He held out a hand, and Jake reached around to the back of his helmet, ejecting the memory chip, and handed it to the Commander.

Cerny placed the chip on his desk, and turned his attention back to the map. "Our informant's last transmission told us that Webb was planning on escaping the city today at mid-day. He knows the covenant is glassing the city, but most of the roads out of the city are jammed with refugees or have simply stopped working. So he's likely to attempt an evacuation by air, and hope that we just let his ship slip through the cracks." He flashed the Spartans a grin "But he's not going to make it to his ride. I'm sure you've already picked the spot to do it from. It'll be a tight window. Maybe 30 seconds for him to walk from his room to the bird. Good luck. There's a falcon on launch pad 7 waiting for you, and the armoury is just outside that door. Happy hunting." He turned back to his map, widening the view to the whole city.

Sabina followed Jake out of the Control Centre, down a dimly lit corridor and into the armoury. The quartermaster just shrugged them through, allowing them free reign over their armaments. Sabina knew what she needed, Jake would take the sniper rifle, and she would grab a spotting scope. She also procured an M7S silenced sub machine gun and an M392 Designated Marksman Rifle. She noticed Jake grabbing plenty of ammo for his 99D-S2, and he also swapped his MA5D for an M392 as well. They stocked up on DMR ammo, and turned for the door. On her way out, Sab snagged a LOTUS anti-personnel mine. "Just in case" She explained, clipping it to a magnetic hardpoint.

The two heavily armed and armoured Spartans loped out of the armoury, and made their way towards the air pad. Sabina couldn't help but notice the line of wounded laid out outside the field surgery. A Marine attempted a salute, before passing out on his stretcher. As the doctor rushed to his side, the Spartans moved on, towards the sleek form of a UH-144 Falcon, its twin propeller blades already spinning up.

Jake tapped the cockpit, nodding to the pilot, then hauled himself inside the small open-air seating arrangement, grabbing hold of a handle on the fuselage. Sabina sat down opposite him, facing backwards, and activated the magnetic clamp in her seat. The pilot spoke over the COM.

"Uptown New Mombasa, here we come, expect slight delays due to the end of the world" He joked, chuckling.

Sabina grunted with amusement, even Jake cracked a smile, hidden behind his visor. "That's the place pilot, the eye of the storm"

"I hear that, sir, might want to hold onto something, I'm gonna open her up, try and avoid all those covvie patrols" The pilot stated, opening up the throttle of the transport craft, shooting towards the remnants of the city, close to the ground.

Low building whizzed by under them, as they approached the Northern part of the city, they picked up a hail on the SATCOM network. The ID associated said it was Lord Hood. The two shared a knowing was going to be worth listening to.

"This is Admiral Hood of UNSC FLEETCOM. Attention to any and all UNSC forces in or around New Mombasa. Due to the severe nature of the invasion, orbital MAC rounds have been authorised, Hood out"

The signal winked out, and the two Spartans found themselves staring at the menacing covenant craft circling the city. Earth had a vast array of Orbital Defence Platforms, each equipped with the latest Magnetic Accelerator Canons, which spun up a car-sized projectile to incredible speeds, before hurling it at its target. In this case, the prime target would be the assault carrier hovering a thousand feet above the city centre.

"Pilot, you get that?" asked Jake, well aware that MAC rounds in atmosphere put on a hell of a show

"Loud and clear sir, changing course to keep us away from the city centre" As he said it, the Falcon swooped to the right, skirting around the city limits.

The covenant assault carrier powered up its ventral beams, the air dancing around the brilliant pinpricks of light. Then, the whole ship rocked, recoiling from a trio of massive impacts. One of the hypersonic MAC slugs penetrated right through the hull, exiting the underbelly of the purple vessel. A second later the deafening roars of the slugs entering the atmosphere ripped through the air, maxing out Sabina's helmet's sound filter. The three deep booms of the slugs impacting on the hull followed soon after. The crippled craft limped southwards, rapidly losing altitude, plasma and atmosphere venting from the deep wounds in its hull. Its engines shuddered, then cut out, and the alien warship dropped like a stone into the ocean, sending up spray hundreds of feet into the air.

Sabina stared in amazement, and heard a collective cheer from below. Every human being for three miles around cheered at the sight of the once mighty ship sinking into the Atlantic. The noise was like a thousand football stadiums yelling at once. It was the best noise she'd heard for a long time.

The pilot's voice came over the COM, shaky, "Uh, I… We're 5 mikes out from the Drop Zone."

They passed the next 5 minutes in silence, the city passing underneath them. The pilot had to duck to building level for a while to avoid a couple of nosy Banshees. They approached the Drop Zone, a small parking lot 100 metres away from their vantage point. As soon as the falcon touched down, both Spartans jumped out. Jake banged on the fuselage of the craft and watched as it soared into the sky and shot southwest.

They moved off quickly, down the street towards their chosen high rise, keeping low. As they reached the doors, they heard another colossal boom, Sabina guessed that another covenant ship was now crippled. They pushed through the revolving doors and entered a large marble-floored lobby. They stalked across the open space towards the stairwell. This place was once a high end law office, the firm's name "Pearson and Hardman" was stencilled across the back wall, above the elevators. They checked the time; 6:03 AM. They had time.

Sabina took the lead up the dark stairwell, covering every angle with her M7S. The pair ascended to the 15th floor, and entered a series of offices, each as drab and tasteless as the last. Sabina opened the door of yet another office filled with cubicles, and darted over to the window. "Here" She waved Jake over "Here has a clear line of sight straight to the airpad."

Jake stepped up to the floor-to-ceiling window, staring at the Grand Hotel, about 400 metres away. He made a few calculations. He was about 20 metres higher than the target would be, and there was a plethora of flags on the roof of the hotel, so he could judge wind speed. He grunted. "Here will do just fine, rig up the LOTUS in the stairwell."

Sabina retrieved the mine, and returned to the dark stairway, arming the device so that if anyone came up to their floor, the explosive would detonate. Simple, yet effective. She also moved one of the many desks on that floor in front of the door, just in case the mine was a dud.

When she came back into the office, Jake had already moved three of the desks out of the way, clearing a space on the floor about 3 metres by 5 metres. He was crouched in the middle of that space now, disassembling and reassembling his sniper rifle, checking every component. She closed the door to the room and went over, pulling out her spotting scope.

"Well, we have 5 hours to kill until Webb pops up" Sabina muttered, sitting herself down in the space, unpacking all of her ammo from her armour and lining all the magazines up in a neat row. Jake had already done the same with the High Velocity Armour Piercing rounds that he would use to silence the target. He sat down, leaning against a cubicle wall, sighing.

"Well then, for the next few hours, we shall do nothing Sab, because for once, we can do nothing." He placed his assembled rifle next to the ammunition. "We watch the world end, listen to the radio, and reminisce."

They fell into silence, both looking out upon the city. The resistance was taking shape. Only a handful of covenant ships remained, and the MAC rounds were finding their marks every time. Specks of darkness harassed the ships, and laser fire spewed from the alien vessels, shooting down what Sabina now realised were AV-22 Sparrowhawk attack fighters. The fire from the tiny fighters sparked off of the alien shields. Like flies attacking a bear.

"Oddly beautiful, isn't it?" Jake mumbled, resting his head against the cubicle wall. "So much chaos and violence out there, and yet we're in here, just waiting peacefully, waiting for the moment at which I will take a life, and simultaneously save hundreds, if not thousands."

"We never really get a chance to just… think" Sabina replied, leaning against the opposite wall. "You know John followed the carrier, right?"

"Yes, I had a poke through combat reports when we were on the falcon. The frigate In Amber Clad piggybacked under the carrier's shields. A fool's gambit. But this is John, and he was always the lucky one." He flexed his robotic fingers "Some of us… not so much"

"How many of us are there left?" Sabina asked. It sounded like an obvious question, but they'd lost so many over the years. "John, me, you, Kelly, Linda, Fred, Naomi, Grey Team, Kurt?"

He shook his head "Kurt lost control in an EVA Op, thruster malfunction, never found him. I think Victor's still kicking about and Douglass, Alice and Jerome disappeared with the Spirit of Fire." He thought for a minute "There's not much left is there? A handful of middle-aged Spartans is not enough to turn the tides of war."

"Maybe not, but now there's Brutes fighting Elites, a civil war maybe." Sabina pointed out. "Maybe the Covenant will fall apart"

He shrugged "Maybe, but I know that as soon as the Covenant is dealt with, we've still got insurrectionists like Webb to deal with." Jake fiddled with his DMR "But for now, we're not thinking of the big picture, we're just two Spartans, waiting in an abandoned office building in a burning city"

At around 9:00 AM, Jake received a burst transmission from the _Overwatch_ in low orbit. A simple text message, signed by Captain Osman. It read; "Sierra 209, new intel on target, possession of Grade-3 Nuclear ordinance confirmed. Mission parameters changed. Retrieval is a priority, neutralisation now secondary objective. Ideally, we need target alive. Too much at stake. Osman out" They read the short message quickly, and both stood up, gathering their ammunition.

"Grade 3? That's not home-made stuff. He's getting it from somewhere." Jake muttered as he slung his sniper rifle over his back. "A nuke that size could destroy a small city."

Sabina snapped her DMR onto her back, slamming a magazine home into her M7S. "There are plenty of nukes going on the black market, not many grade-3s though." She admitted. With many UNSC colonies going dark, it was sometimes the case that Insurrectionists would scavenge for ordinance. Occasionally a small grade-1 weapon would make its way into the black markets, but a grade-3 could only mean a FENRIS or HAVOK UNSC warhead. And it was now their job to retrieve them, along with their owner.

Jake paused, staring out of the window, DMR in hand. "So then, you ready to kidnap an Innie and steal some nukes?" He turned to face her, grinning behind his visor

"All in a day's work" She responded, flicking the safety off on her M7.

In unison, they turned to the door, weapons raised, and set off, two half-tonne warriors with a mission. David Webb wouldn't know what hit him.


	6. Chapter 6: Insurrection

Chapter 6: INSURRECTION

"So, what's the plan?" asked Sabina-211, as her and Jacob-209 hurtled down the darkened stairwell of a law office.

"Well, I'm going for a smash and grab Op here." He replied, bursting through the door to the ground floor, DMR raised. "He's got Grade-3 munitions, so we can't afford to mess this up." He was referring to David Webb, an Insurrectionist terrorist cell leader who had recently acquired some surplus UNSC nuclear warheads from an anonymous source. Their mission directive had been altered from kill to capture less than 5 minutes ago when the possession of Grade-3 warheads was confirmed. Their target was located on the 10th floor of the nearby Grand Hotel. They had three hours until the target was scheduled to leave the Mega-city of New Mombasa, right in the middle of a Covenant invasion.

Sabina followed, keeping her silenced M7 sub machine gun ready. "I'm all for that, but we've got ten floors to cover, after three or four, we might just start to lose the element of surprise"

They crouched by the reception desk, checking their motion trackers for hostiles. Satisfied that the street outside was clear, they pushed through the revolving doors and dashed down the pavement, sticking to the shadows of the banks and shops that ran along the road. They heard the deep booms of artillery fire, and Sabina guessed that the battery on the southern bank of the river had opened fire on the covenant forces still present in what was left of the city centre. They stopped on the corner, and took cover behind the displays inside an off-license, or "Bottle shops" as they were known.

Jake turned to face her, making his visor transparent, his face set and determined. "We need to come up with something, we can't just storm the front doors guns blazing."

Sabina considered the problem for a few seconds. "We could climb up the rear side of the building?" Then she shook her head, frustrated "No, forget that, can we get some schematics of the hotel?"

Jake nodded "I'll get in contact with Command, maybe they can help us out" He broadcast a voice message to SATCOM, which in turn routed them to Captain Osman aboard the UNSC _Overwatch_.

"209, this is Osman, what do you need?" She asked, her voice calm and steady.

"Up-to date schematics and Satellite imagery of the Grand Hotel" Jake said, and was rewarded a moment later by a swarm of data packets displaying themselves on his HUD.

"There we are, Osman out." The COM link was severed, and Sabina couldn't blame her for her abruptness, spooks were notoriously paranoid about COMs being intercepted.

Jake studied the blueprints, schematics, street view images and live satellite feeds on his HUD for a whole minute, then blinked them off, smiling widely. "I've got us our entry point. There's some repair work being done to the exterior of the building, the scaffolding should take us up to the 10th floor." He hesitated, consulting the plans. "And the best thing is, the scaffolding isn't on any blueprint or plan, so unless Webb physically accessed the staff-only area out back and saw the damn thing, he can't have seen it, there are no windows on that side of the building." He stood up, stretching his neck. "That's our ticket in"

Sabina stood as well, the floor creaking slightly with the weight of two 350 kilogram Spartans, highlighting her concern "Will the scaffolding cope with two sets of MJOLNIR?"

Jake paused, frowning slightly "Should do, it's all carbon nano-fibre according to the paperwork, we'll keep an eye on it though, let's go" He moved stealthily towards the door. "There's an alley 100 metres, left side, move"

She followed his lead, and they dashed out of the shop, across the deserted street, and continued down the pavement, towards the hotel. Just before the entrance and lobby, a small alleyway turned off from the main road, and they flattened themselves against its wall, before moving slowly down the dark, narrow passage. The Grand Hotel loomed over them, casting a long shadow in the mid-morning light.

The sound of impulse drives started in the distance, and both Spartans instinctively crouched up against the wall, presenting a small a target as possible as the flight of single-pilot Covenant Banshee fighters soared over head. They waited for the whining of their engines to fade into the background before proceeding. Sabina located the access door, a flimsy metal obstacle that was dispatched with a swift kick. Ignoring the numerous warning signs and safety posters, they did not don a hard-hat before heading onto the building site.

Sabina quickly spotted the scaffolding, a series of gangways stacked on top of each other, with a single carbon-fibre ladder running up one side of it. The structure was secured to the building's edge at every storey by steel cables. She ran over to the ladder, gingerly testing its strength before jumping on it. Reassured, she turned to Jake. "Try and find a plasma cutter, we're going to need to get in when we get to the top."

Jake jogged over to a contractor's truck, picking the lock on the trunk and searching it. He found a rusty old arc cutter, and accompanying fuel canister. He attached both to his belt, before returning to the base of the scaffolding, and beginning his ascent about 2 metres below Sabina. He turned his head to the left, away from the building, and saw the battle for the city. Several Covenant ships continued to "glass" the inner districts, but they were constantly harassed by a co-ordinated counter-offensive, including orbital MAC batteries, long-sword bombers, Hawk attack aircraft, terrestrial artillery, and missiles which rained down from Navy ships in orbit, detonating against the shields and hulls of the bulbous vessels. The covenant weren't going down without a fight, however. Jake watched, still climbing, as a cruiser turned its plasma weaponry on the artillery arranged on the south bank of the river. He turned his attention back to the climb, his power-assisted armour giving him an unnatural turn of speed.

Sabina was also taking in the view, staring as she climbed. She was so transfixed by the awesome battle that she almost forgot to stop climbing at the 10th floor. She swung herself round on the ladder and stepped onto the platform, suddenly aware of the high speed winds buffeting them on their perch. Jake pulled himself up to the platform a moment later, and quickly began assessing the best place to enter the building. Sabina removed the plasma cutter from his belt and began assembling it, checking the fuel pressure and lighting it, a pinprick of super-heated gas froming at the tip of the tool.

Jake turned to her, closing the schematics from his HUD. He indicated a point on the metal wall in front of them. "There, should come out into a store closet. Let's get on with it, it's 9:30 already."

Sabina nodded, polarised her visor to the fullest, and manipulated the aging tool, setting it to the highest temperature. She pressed the tip to the wall just as the artillery barrage from a mile away began, drowning out the noise of the cutter. She rapidly made a large cut in the wall, before popping the section of wall out, a 50 kilogram plate of metal falling onto the scaffolding with a dull thunk. The newly formed hole revealed a small, dark storeroom, containing shelves filled with cleaning supplies, and a janitor's trolley.

"Ladies first" Muttered Jake, flicking the safety off of his DMR.

Sabina crawled through the void, moving the trolley out of the way, standing up by the door into the corridor. Jake joined her, pushing the cart back into the corner, covering the gap in the wall. Jake checked his motion sensor, spotting three targets in the room two doors down, he nodded to Sabina, who slowly opened the closet door, pressing her M7 into the widening gap. They stepped out into the carpeted hallway, surprisingly silent considering their mass. They slowly crept along the wall towards room 117. Consulting the schematics, Sabina saw that room 117 was directly connected to the air pad jutting out of the side of the hotel. She brought up a snapshot of David Webb's face, they needed him alive after all.

Jake swiftly moved to the other side of the door, so that the two Spartans were flanking the doorframe. "Sab, three hostiles in the room, identify Webb ASAP, neutralise his hired help." He checked the radioactive activity metre on his HUD, and saw that it was skyrocketing. "The nukes are in there too, locate them after Webb is restrained" He paused, double checking all of the information he had before nodding at her.

She nodded back, waiting for his countdown, adrenaline surging through her veins, slowing time to a crawl. She checked the ammo counter on her M7S, ran a quick check on her armour systems, and waited.

"On my mark, 3…2…1…Mark!" He yelled as she moved away from the wall, leaning back and kicking down the hotel door, the force of the blow ripping the door off of its hinges and propelling it across the room at speed. As soon as the doorway was clear, Jake charged into the room, quickly taking in the view before him. There was a low coffee table in the centre of the room, a sofa and a television on a table in the far corner. On his immediate left as walked through the shattered doorway was a luxurious bathroom. Two men in militia clothes, tattered combat trousers, hunting jackets and service boots were standing by the table in the corner, hunched over a data pad. Webb himself was sat on the sofa, head back, eyes closed. As they reacted to the intrusion, Jake calmly raised his DMR's scope to his eye and fired twice, striking down the two men in the corner. Before they had even hit the ground, feebly trying to release their side-arms from their holsters, Sabina had already ducked under Jake's rifle and strode across the room. Webb's eyes darted open, and he began to rise, grabbing an MA5K from the coffee table, bringing it round to bear. Before he could pull the trigger, a half-tonne mass of ceramic armour ploughed into him, knocking him to the floor and cracking three of his ribs. While Sabina snapped composite plastic cuffs around the Insurrectionist's wrists, Jake calmly walked over to the two grunts, and finished them off with a single shot to the head each.

The room fell silent, interrupted only by the groans and growls of Webb as he struggled hopelessly against the Spartan subduing him. She grabbed him bodily and threw him back onto the sofa, requisitioning the terrorist's weapon for herself.

"The nukes, where are they?" She asked him, her PA system amplifying her voice. She nodded to Jake, who began searching the room quickly.

Webb winced and wheezed, cracking his neck and glaring up at the armoured figure. "Two Spartans? I'm flattered. I've been expecting something like this, but to think that the fascist EarthGov would think me a big enough threat to send two Spartans." He spat on the floor. "I'll not tell you shit, bitch"

"Found something!" Called Jake from the bathroom, emerging clutching a large metal suitcase. He ripped open the lid, inspecting the contents. "Looks like two FENRIS warheads and a HAVOK" He shut the lid quickly, wheeling the case towards the French doors leading to the air pad. He checked the mission timer on his HUD, 9:55. Right on time.

He opened up a secure COM link to the _Overwatch_, and Captain Osman's olive-skinned profile appeared, looking composed, as always.

"Grade-3 payloads secured, ma'am, three FENRIS and one HAVOK. Webb's secured, ready for transport" Jake reported

"Excellent work, 209, sending a bird to come pick you up, ETA twenty mikes. Our informant is in that hotel somewhere, we can't get a lock on his transponder, we need you to exfil her too. Without Webb, this cell will collapse, and she's safer quitting now. Her code-word is 'Sparrow', call that and she'll come running" She stared at another screen, frowning, red alarm lights reflecting in her eyes "I'm sorry, 209, I've got another customer on the line, good luck" The COM link was severed again, and Jake shared the development.

Upon hearing of the informant's situation, Sabina sighed. "Well then, one of us has got to stay with Webb" She stood up, having finished tying the terrorist's legs together with some all-purpose tape she'd picked up from the construction site. "I'll go grab our spook, you watch him" She fashioned a gag out of a hand towel, shoved it in Webb's mouth and secured it in place with more tape.

Jake shouldered his rifle, moving over to the coffee table. "Fine by me, just be quick, ETA on the bird is 18 minutes".

She stalked out into the corridor, broadcasting on all UNSC or ONI radio frequencies. "Sparrow, get to 10, Sparrow, get to 10". Advancing towards the stairwell door, the Spartan descended to the 9th floor, detecting at least a dozen contacts on her motion sensor. She paused by the door, waiting to see if any of the contacts moved towards the stairs. None did, so she proceeded to the eighth floor, sweeping her weapon back and forth. This floor had fewer contacts, and one was conspicuous in that it was moving quite deliberately towards her position. She braced herself against the stairwell wall as the door smoothly opened to reveal a young woman, dressed much like the others in faded fatigues. Her dyed blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and her eyes widened as she made out the shape of the towering warrior. Sabina pushed the muzzle of her weapon into the woman's temple, whispering through her PA "Code-word?"

"Sparrow" She whispered back, not afraid.

Sabina lowered her weapon, handing the captured MA5K to the ONI agent. "Evac's in 10 minutes, follow me."

The woman grasped the compact assault rifle, nodding, and followed the armoured figure up to the ninth floor. Just as they reached the landing, the door swung open, revealing an Insurrectionist foot-soldier half-way over the threshold, laughing and looking behind him.

Sabina wasted no time in putting him down, firing a burst of silenced fire directly at him. As he crumpled, his comrades exclaimed in alarm, rushing towards the stairwell. Sabina put a few more bursts into the open doorway to dissuade them, practically threw the ONI agent up the next flight of stairs, and slowly backed up them herself, keeping the doorway covered. As the agent rushed to the next floor, Sabina heard the echoing trampling of boots on stone stairs from below. The men on the 9th floor had obviously contacted those on the 8th. She primed a grenade and tossed it down the stairs, then jumped up to the 10th floor.

Jake met her in the hallway, fully aware of the situation. He stood in cover in the doorway of room 117, braced against the wall, DMR aimed at chest height at the stairway door. She moved in the other direction, adopting a firing stance, crouched in the hallway, and aimed her own weapon at the door. They waited for a tense 45 seconds before the sound of trampling boots was audible, almost overwhelming the sounds of barked orders.

As the first Innie rounded the corner, M90 shotgun raised, Jake fired a single round into his chest, and he fell. More followed, 4 or 5 armed troops stormed into the hallway, firing blindly at whatever they could see. Sabina took a few stray rounds, her shields flaring, and calmly pressed the trigger, spraying the men with machine gun fire, joined by Jake's rifle's loud cracks as he fired the semi-automatic weapon. All of the men lay still, blood seeping into the carpet. Jake turned on his loudspeaker. "UNSC forces are in control here, retreat or we will be forced to neutralise you."

The echo of footsteps halted, and Sabina saw on her motion sensor a group of approximately 8 contacts on the stairs, waiting. She checked her chronograph "5 minutes" she whispered over the COM.

Jake, not satisfied with just halting the force, emptied his magazine into the stairwell, tossing a frag grenade into the darkness. There was a booming explosion, followed by screams, and the sound of boots retreating. He turned into the room to the ONI agent, who was now watching Webb, covering him with her rifle. "4 minutes" he said, backing into the room. "Sab, get in here and set up that LOTUS."

She darted into the room, retrieving the anti-personnel mine from her belt and priming it, setting it under a pile of towels just inside the ruined doorway. She backed away from it, striding over and grabbing Webb, throwing him over her shoulder with ease. Jake kicked open the door to the air pad, grabbing the suitcase and exiting the hotel room. The ONI agent followed the towering Spartan, and was followed closely by the other. They paced over a short gangway to the small air pad, awaiting the hail from their ride. It came not a minute later.

"This is Pelican Bravo Zulu five-five, Sierra 209, do you read? Over" Came the pilot's voice

"Roger Bravo Zulu 55, we read, need an exfil from the air pad at the grand, LZ is hostile, over." Replied Jake, placing the suitcase on the floor and crouching, aiming his rifle towards the open door to room 117. Agent Sparrow crouched next to him, levelling her own weapon towards the door.

"Bravo Zulu 55 to Sierra 209, got you on visual, coming in from the north" The Pelican's familiar shape came into view, soaring over the treetops and roofs, it banked sharply up wards, bleeding speed, then slowly descended towards the group, bay door facing the hotel, the engine's downdraught whipping Sparrow's hair back and forth.

Just as the dropship touched down on the pad, the LOTUS mine went off, killing a dozen insurgents, gutting room 117 in a fireball, the concussion wave blowing out all the windows in the hotel and nearly knocking Sabina off of her feet.

She ran into the hold of the Pelican, strapping Webb firmly into his seat. Jake grabbed the suitcase and hurled it into the dropship. He and Sparrow climbed in and strapped themselves in. Jake buzzed the pilot "We're in, go go go!"

The pilot didn't even respond, he just pushed the throttle to max, tearing away from the hotel building at super-sonic speeds. The bay doors slid smoothly shut, and Jake looked out of the back viewscreen, for the second time today, and saw a massive Covenant destroyer loom over the block, pinpricks of white light dancing around the bow evidence that it was charging its devastating ventral beams. Brilliant white light burst through the screen and into the hold as the ship fired the energy weapon, destroying a whole city block in one fell swoop, incinerating and vitrifying the area within seconds.

As they sped away from the site, the pilot wordlessly patched through Captain Osman over the COMs, and the co-pilot handed Sparrow an infantry helmet so that she could be in on the conversation.

"Well done, all of you. We'll have a nice chat with Mr Webb about the history of those warheads, and I saw the destroyer _Reverant Vindicator_ had a go at finishing you off, I just think you'd like to see what happens next" On the HUD, she fiddled with something off screen, smiling to herself. "Osman out"

The link was cut, and Jake requested the pilot to patch through the rear camera feed to their HUDs. They saw the rotund, purple, pearlescent vessel turn back towards the city centre, its engines flaring. They also saw the barrage of Orbital MAC rounds streaking towards the ship, heard the deep booming of anti-ship artillery firing, and the sound of multiple missiles being directed towards the craft, from orbit and from terrestrial batteries, even a few from a Water-borne Navy Vessel in the bay. The combined ordinance struck the destroyer simultaneously, and while the laser defences shot many of the missiles from the shy, they could do nothing against the four-tonne MAC slugs, or the thousands of high-explosive artillery shells. They detonated against the ship's shields, which then, overwhelmed, faltered and faded, paving the way for the MAC rounds and missiles, which struck home, tearing through the decks of the proud ship. The destroyer was eviscerated by a combination of immense firepower and the plasma fuel lines igniting, burning the ship from the inside out. They watched as the layers of armour peeled off of the remnants of the hull, melting from the intense heat.

Finally, the core went critical, detonating as the destroyer limped over the glassed southern districts. The resulting explosion was so powerful that it rocked the dropship, almost swatting it out of the air, shockwaves travelled for miles, causing tall buildings left standing in the city's financial centre to collapse. The intense light given off by the starship's reactor going critical was enough to temporarily knock out the rear view cameras, and temporarily blind those in the bay of the Pelican, even with fully filtered visors.

As the remnants of the _Reverant Vindicator_ fell to earth, Osman hailed them again, text communication only "No-one messes with my Op. Pilot, proceed to Firebase Bastion. Good work Spartans. Osman out"

Jake and Sabina looked at each other, and depolarised their visors. Jake grunted "So, we've captured a leader of an insurrectionist terrorist cell…" He jerked his head towards the limp form of Webb who had 'accidentally' hit his head on the way out of the room and passed out. "…we've secured five Grade-3 nuclear warheads…" He poked the silver suitcase with his armoured boot "… and we assisted an ONI agent in escaping certain death by a covenant destroyer…" Sparrow nodded, keeping a watchful eye on Webb "… which was then annihilated."

Sabina-211 nodded, smiling widely, resting her hands on her knees "Not too bad for a night's work"


End file.
